Production of dead-burned magnesia



Patented Aug. 9, 1949 UNITED STATES 2,478,593 a V =-PRODUCTIONOF naAn-emmaniimonesm Robert 1). Pike, Pittsburgh, r e s g ri bison-Walker Refractories Co burgh, Pa., a corporationfo Application December 5, 19:43, Serial Ida-14,223

3.10 to 3.20, and/a magnesia (MgO) content preferably not less than about 92 per cent. It has been proposed to make dead burned magnesia from precipitated magnesium hydrate LMg( OH)2], but up to the present time it has not been possible to obtain such densities with such materials unless they are burned at excessively high temperatures e. g., above about 3350 F., or in the electric furnace, and such procedures either are not practical ori-are not economical.

Precipitated magnesium I hydrate slurry when,v

burned in a rotary kiln ordinarily has a grain density less than 3.0 so that it is unsatisfactory for brick making despite its iavorable content of magnesia. Consequently jall of the dead burned magnesia for brick making has preferably been 1 Claim. (01. .gs-eaoi) derived from magnesite roc l ,except when burned f in a rotary kiln at a very high temperature.

This invention is an improvement upon that described and claimed in Patent No. 2,348,847, granted May 16,1944 upon anapplication filed .icated upon myadiscovery that magnesium hydrate made by the process disclosed-in Patent No. 2,373,911, granted April 17, 194:5, on another ap- 'plication filed by me,similar-materials, when calcined lightly, say at-not over about l000 produce magnesia which is highly reactive chem- .ically. The pro'cessofNo. 2,348,847 is applicable llikewise to magnesium hydrate made by the process of Patent No.}2,3'7 3,913, granted April 17, (1945 on still-another application filed by me, which was an improvement upon the invention ,ofNo. 2,373,911. I

The processes of my aforesaid Patents Nos. 2,3'.7.3,9ll and 2,373,913 involve the production of lmagnesium hydrate and-,calcium carbonate from dolomite, and basically it involves two steps. first, calcined and hydrated dolomite is treated with a magnesium chloride brine to precipitate -magnesium hydrate and produce a brine containlng calcium chloride. Inthe second stage a fur- Hther amount of calcined andhydrateddolomite is treated with the lcalci-um -chloride brine from the first stage and with carbondioxide to precipitate ehflksndfierm apnssnesium shlwi e br by me. The invention of that patent was predspecific gravity at room temperature.

iwith about 50.110 saber iwhiehistecsicl siiors ei thenrst s ag Th b t imings my'di'sqir aiii'iactors and patented processes 0.. Yrapidsetthngand s ium sh o igh Mgo .content. M W T As described in Nos. 2,373gell and 2,373,9 3 the -Q9lgmi -@491 d ate. te hei tlire such as to th s e t mt-and,.i g .alenes um c bo s er exit is grammar, .by w hich I refer topar-ticls ltilr er than 325-inesh, and most suitably larger than 200- mesh, but advan aeeq slr not. eniuse ab larger than mesh. The calcined dolomite is then dry hydrated with a ealcium cihlolride brine which is free, crsubstantiall y free, om magnesium chloride. The concentration ofthis brine is impornt, and it should peirrqm about 1.05 to 1.08 The amount .of brine"used shouldisomewhat exceed the amount necessaryifor hydration of the calcium oggideso. thattheproductwill be very granular. Using ;a bri ne of theloonoentrat'ion stated, it is preferred. qrdinari ohydrate the dolomite brine. The'productwill dry andfgr'anular, the lime will be completely ydratedfa'nd about 20 Pe cent of, the-mass s will be hydrated- The granula' rtion eparated from the dry hydrated material then preferably creamed withja further amount .olfft he same calcium chloride brine to. produoe fl ,lunipjree slurry.

Theoream l-thus produced is .then ready for reaction in zthe step with the magnesium chloride -br, I. Q ,i fieferabl y ,cpntaining a small amount r sulfate ion idi ciose'd in No. 2,373,913,

whereby a magnesium hydrate is precipitated and.

' a calcium chloride containing "brine is formed.

In this first step the amount of MgClz in the brine used shouldbo no t l ess. t l 1an about 105 per cent in excess .iof thsfim W This brine results of magnesium chloride and bout 3 per cent of calciumchloride a stage it wl-lgl cont y. about 11 per cent dw ll hare-a pecific r v t of about 1.10 -11!) 1,51%, -.-'Ih ,=ma gnes ium hydrate u rnroduee asettless mdlv and filters easily nt by' weight of that The invention of my earlier Patent No. 2,348,847 was predicated upon my discovery of the reactivity of MgO produced by light calcining of hydrate produced as just described, 1. e., that when this reactive magnesia is mixed with the uncalcined magnesium hydrate a strong reaction sets in which liberates heat and converts the mixture to a hard mass of relatively dry hydrated magnesia. The mixture is formed into nodules, grains, pellets, or similar shapes prior to initiation of that reaction, and the heat evolved in the reaction so hardens the nodules, or granules, that thereafter they may be handled freely with substantially no proportion of dust being formed. After the nodules have become dried and hardened they are then burned to produce dead burned magnesia, suitably by passing them through a rotary kiln.

Continued experience with the process of the said Patent No. 2,348,847 has shown that while the reaction just alluded to suflices to harden the grains or pellets by autogenously generated heat, as described in the patent, it may at times actually occur so rapidly and proceed so vigorously that the mixture sets up to a hardened state while being formed, as in the extrusion step, and thus interfere with the operation of or actually stop the forming machine.

An object of this invention is to produce dead burned magnesia from precipitated magnesium hydrate by a process which is generally similar and embodies all of the advantages of that disclosed and claimed in my earlier Patent No. 2,348,847 but in which the autogenous hardening reaction is controlled simply and efficiently to prevent its premature occurrence.

Further objects will appear from the following specification.

After extended experience with the process of No. 2,348,847 in attempts to delay or slow down the autogenous hardening reaction, and after virtually reaching the conclusion that that could not be done satisfactorily, I have discovered that that object can be attained by calcining the wet magnesium hydrate at a temperature substantially higher than that disclosed in the patent but still productive of caustic magnesia, i. e., short of dead burning, and it is upon this that the present invention is predicated. As a result setting up in the extrusion mill or other forming machine is avoided and the product is of the same high quality described in the said patent.

In my earlier invention the reaction of autogenously liberated heat started very rapidly, usually in less than one hour after mixing. By reducing the reactivity of the caustic, in accordance with my present invention, as evidenced by an ignition loss of less than 1%, heatin is scarcely discernible in two hours, but when the nodules have been stored in a bin overnight they become dried down to 7-8% free moisture, and are very hard and strong. Furthermore, they retain considerable heat as evidenced by their Warmth.

The storage of the wet nodules in a bin as practiced by me in my present invention necessitates the use of some surface coating material to prevent or greatly reduce the tendency for the nodules to adhere to one another under the pressure exerted in the bin. I find that this can be done by introducing a relatively small amount of ground caustic into the tumblers, thus coating the nodules with dry caustic magnesia.

In the practice of the invention,- therefore,

4 precipitated magnesium hydrate, suitably in the form of a wet filter cake, is, as described in Patent No. 2,348,847, divided into two portions, and one portion is calcined. In contrast with the patent procedure, however, this portion is calcined at about 17G0 to 1900" F. to an ignition loss of about 6.5 to 1 per cent to produce caustic magnesia. Thereafter the calcined material is treated in general accordance with the practice described in the said patent except that release of heat and hardening are delayed so as to occur in the storage bins. The caustic is ground, if need be, advantageously so that most of it will pass a -mesh screen, and it is then mixed with the other moist, or uncalcined, portion of magnesium hydrate. The proportions in which the two are mixed will vary in accordance with such factors as the particular burned density required and the character of the magnesium hydrate, but for the most part it will depend on the moisturecontent of the hydrate, the amounts of correcting materiais added, the manner of mixing and the water content of the mixture needed for proper handling, or shaping, into nodule-s. It will be seen, therefore, that exact limits on the proportions of the two cannot be set. However, using he hydrate cake described in my aforesaid Patents Nos. 2,373,911 and 2,373,913 I now prefer to subject about fifty to sixty-five per cent of the filter cake to calcining to produce reactive magnesia. The critical factor here is that the mix shall be of a consistency suited to the production of dense nodules.

The calcined and uncalcined hydrates are then mixed and nodulized. It is of great advantage to have the nodules dense so that usually the mixture is made to the consistency of the stifi mud used in extruding ordinary clay brick with an auger machine, the latter preferably operating under vacuum in accordance with a practice well known in the clay working industries. The mix is then formed in any suitable manner into shapes of desired size, which for many purposes may be from /2 to inch in diameter, and in further accordance with the present invention these nodules are coated with some of the ground caustic magnesia dust and the nodules are then stored in bins wherein the reaction takes place, usually during the course of 6 to 24 hours, with concurrent drying and hardening of the nodules. After the reaction they are strong enough to permit removal from the bins and hard enough to permit rough handling and to form a suitable feed, virtually equivalent to rock magnesite, for calcining to the dead burned state, as in a rotary kiln. The nodules may lose some of their strength and hardness in the vicinity of 1400 to 1600 F. while passing through the dead burning kiln, but they do not break up to any great extent under the influence of the tumbling action in the kiln, and practically no dust is produced in the burning operationr The dead burning is effected at a maximum temperature of about 3000 to 3100 F. The nodules of dead burned magnesia delivered from the kiln have a grain density that is satisfactory for refractory purposes. This material maybe crushed to yield hard, clean and granular grains practically free from dust.

Although it is not necessary, the hardened and dried nodules are preferably heated further before going to the dead burning kiln to further reduce their water content, which is about 6.5 to 8.0 per cent, wet basis.

Although it is not known with certainty why an exothermic reaction "occurs "petween the caustic calcined magnesia and the magnesium hydrate, or why thepro'duct or *thatre'action produces the virtual'equivalentoi rockmagnesite as a feed to the dead burningk'iln,"i now believe that the reasons are as follows: The hydrate produced by the process of "my aforesaid Patents Nos. 2,373,911 and 2,373,9l3'usual'ly contains a small am'ount'of calcium *andmagnesium'tchlorides; and I believe that those chlorides react with the "caustic calcined magnesianndthusto some extent act'to hardenthe nodules. M'ost'likely however, the principal reaction involved-is are-con- ;version of the highly reactive magnesia-with the water of 'theflncalcinedhydrateto':'iorm "a ma nesium hydrate. This reaction "releases "much heat and-thereby dries-andhardensthe nodules.

Based upon "actual performance-of the= process and using as areierenroe datum i-lbscau'stic calcined 'MgO mixedwith the wet cake, "the heat suppliedto account for the sensible heatand the evaporation ofthe water "in'the fresh pellets down to about "7.6 per cent on the dried and hardened pellets is about 70.4 B; t. u. per pound of the added 'caustic'c'alcined M'g'O. But'according to the data of International Critical Tables the heat'of hydration by liquid water in the reaction MgO H2O="Mg'(OI-I).2"is about'202 B. t. u. per pound of "MgO.

The heat effect is thus so"mu'ch greater than would be expected as toibeiremarkable,but'itindicates that the 'JPIOQESS involves factors not known prior to theinventionof'No. 223483-47. One explanation of the release or several -times the amount of heat theoretically available from 1 the ordinary hydrationof MgO that seems'likeiy is that a stable form "of a higher hydrate, MgQmHzO, has beeniiormed. "Thisrea'ction between reactive caustic "calcined magnesia, water and precipitated "magnesium hydrate, with "or without the presence "of-"magnesium chloride, to release heat and'tocause,a'hardgrock like nodule 'is, I believe,'thereforeinewtinthe' art;

There may be added tothe'mixture "of caustic magnesia and'uncal'cined'magnesium hydrate the correcting materials fwhic'hfare commonly com-- bined with magnesites to, confer "special properties upon the dead burnedgrain. "These materials and their functionsiinmagnesiamefractories are wellunderstood in-the art, but it may be said that generally clay andiron ore are. added for this purpose, as well as calcined dolomite where it is desired to increase therlimeficontent.

In the usual practice of maklng'dead burned magnesia from precipitated magnesium hydrate, there is fed to the kiln a-slurry of'the hydrate. When burned at about 3 100.- to make, grains the grain density is usually tootlow to besuitable for making brick. Ibelieve that this is due to the fact that the slurry fedtozthekiln contains about three to four pounds of, water per pound of solids so that the evaporation;ofthewaiteras the material passes through the kiln'produces'a hydrate which is quite finely divided and in loose,. porous form. building up of grains from such material must be by accretion of myriads of fine particles which enter the hot zone from the drying and preheating zone, This building up of spheroids by ac-' cretion tends to form a porous grain of low density unless an excessively high temperature is used, say about 3350 F. Much, if not most, of the time spent in the hot zone is thus utilized in building the grains up by accretion so that there is little time for shrinking them to their minimum In the hot zone. of the kiln the '6 possible "bulk, i. e.,-to maximum grain density. In contrast, the material fedtothe dead burning kiln in my process is dense and-oi =lowwater content, and-the'water' is driven-out quickly in the kiln without disrupting the nodules so that they pass through the kiln with "little breaking up and the particles enter the hot zone in the form of spheroids'of low porosity so that their entire time of residence in the hot-zone is utilized in shrinking them and producing periclase whereby the grains are of minimum volume and maximum density. Thefproduction oflpericlase, which is the most *densefformpf magnesia,'-in the dead burning operation is, I'believe, "favored by the presenceoi V magnesium and"calcium; c'hlorideswhich are contained in small amountsin the magnesium "hy- 'drate produoedby the processes-'of' my aforesaid Patents Nos. 2,373,911 and 2,373,9-l3'. "Ordinarily that material contains 'about'z to 2.5 per cent-of chlorine in theform of those chlorides, of which about 40 per cent is present as MgCl-z, and the balance asCaClz. Upon'heating the iormer is rapidly decomposed into'magnesia and hydrogen chloride, but the calcium chlorideis morestable and is finally eliminated only "in the 'hot zone of the kiln, possibly by deoompositionto lime and hydrogen chloride, possibly'by direct volatilizetion as "such, and possibly by'reaction with the alkali metal compounds, which maybe present to a small extent, to produce volatile chlorides. The dense structure of the nodules may cause some residual hydrogen chloride resulting from decomposition of the magnesium. chloride to be retained until they are in the hot zone of the kiln. I believe that the combination of these reactions results in-catalyzing the transformation of magnesia into periclase, and as these grains are already interlocked inthedense structure, this helps to increase the density of the dead burned product. :Anadvantage of the hy'drate produced by my aforesaid processes is that it naturally contains these mineralizers although, as will be understood, mineralizers might ,be added for the same-purpose to a hydrate not containing them, and itwill be: understood also that 'in addition to thesealkali-neearth chlorides other chlorides might be-used'for the same-purpose. V g V The inventionsmay be understood. further with reference to the accompanying .fiow sheet. -Pre cipitated magnesium hydrate .made according to Patent No. 2,3t3r,9-1-1,.and preferably No. 2,373,913, or av similar .material, isiormedinto a cakeand washed on a rotary vacuum fllter .l. The cake, is removed and aportion, suitably -to 65; per cent.usuallyabouti-per een-t,. is passed. to a dryer 2, such as a rotary'kiln, where it. is dried and calcined at a temperature of about 1700" to 1900 F.,'or to-an ignitionloss of about 0.5'to 1.0 "per cent The causticcalcined magnesia may then be ground in a mill' 3,. preierably so: that at least gpercent will thenpassa. IGO-meshscreen, iaitermwhich it is passedto a storage bin 4 from W Q I tmev be. wi hdrawn en passedtosa suitable mixing device 5, such as a pug mill together with the remainder of the uncalcined hydrate.

There may be added to the material in mill 5 correcting agents, and for this purpose there are provided storage bins 5, l and 8, which contain respectively, ground clay, iron ore, and. calcined dolomite. Other bins may be provided for other correcting materials necessary for bringing the final product to desired analysis. However, when cake and calcined magnesia so that the mix leaving the mill will be similar to the stiff mud used in the making of bricks by extrusion from an auger machine; the amounts of the two will depend on the water content of the cake, but cakes made by the process of my aforesaid Patent No. 2,373,913 will usually contain from about 47 to 50 per cent of water. The mix is then passed from mill to any suitable means for shaping it into appropriate sizes, for example, an auger machine 9 which forces it through a perforated die It. The perforations in the die plate may suitably be 4 inch in diameter, and the pugs are cut off in appropriate lengths, suitably 2; inch, by wires H which are carried by frames l2 that are so mounted as to act as a rotating wheel which is driven through suitable gearing by a variable speed motor I3. I have also observed, as noted above, that the use of vacuum in the extrusion mill has a favorable effect upon the density of the pellets.

The pugs, which are dense in structure, next are passed, as by a belt conveyor M, into a rotating tube l5 Where they are tumbled to round off the edges while coating them with caustic burned magnesia dust which is fed into the tube for that purpose.

The nodules are then passed to one of a series of bins it from which they are withdrawn usually after 6 to 24 hours and after drying and hardening by autogenously released heat which is generated during storage in the bins. They are then passed to a dead burning kiln ll in which they are converted at a miximum temperature not to exceed about 3100 F. into dead burned magnesia of high density. In passing the nodules into the rotary kiln it is preferred, for fuel economy in the kiln, to pass them as a bed over some form of perforated grate 18 through which the gases from the kiln are passed so as to substantially completely dry them, e. g., to a moisture content of about 1 per cent. Also this preheats them somewhat.

Example The following example is illustrative of the practice of my invention. To make 100 tons of high grade dead burned magnesite containing 97.4 per cent of MgO, the charge to the pug mill is about as follows:

There is some reaction almost immediately be= tween the caustic calcined MgO and free Water because although this formula shows about 32 per cent of free water an actual determination made on the particles leaving the tumbler shows about per cent.

When processed as described above and burned at not to exceed 3100 F. this mix produces a dead burned magnesia having a grain density in excess of 3.15.

From what has been said it will be realized that the invention offers various and substantial advances inthe art. Primarily, it provides dead Iburned magnesia having a grain density which suits it to the'manufacture of magnesite bricks and for other refractory uses. Also, as compared with prior processes of making dead burned magnesia from precipitated hydrate, considerable economy results from the ability to burn at lower temperatures than have been indispensable heretofore. Economies result also from greater kiln output inasmuch as a kiln which will burn but about 50 tons of hydrate slurry per day is capable of burning about 150 tons per day of the autogenously hardened nodules described 7 hereinabove.

According to the provisions of the patent statutes, I have explained the principle and mode of practicing my invention and have illustrated and described what I now consider to represent its best embodiment. However, I desire to have it understood that, within the scope of the appended claim, the invention may be practiced otherwise than as specifically illustrated and described.

I claim:

That method of making dense dead burned magnesia from' moist precipitated magnesium hydrate, which comprises calcining a portion of said hydrate at a temperature between about 1790 REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Name Date Pike May 16, 1944 Number OTHER REFERENCES Mellor, Inorganic and Theoretical Chemistry,

vol. 4. (1923) pp. 288 9. 

